Chapter 18
[ 492 words ]
Chapter 18:
Jarrod’s gaze dropped from her eyes to her slightly parted, trembling lips. The coldness in his expression fractured, revealing something incredibly complex and raw underneath.
Slowly, he lifted his hand. His rough thumb gently traced the curve of her cheek, a touch so tender it completely contradicted the violence of pinning her to the locker.
Jarrod’s rough thumb dragged slowly across Caroline’s cheekbone. The friction sent a violent, involuntary shiver down her spine. She froze, her breath trapped in her throat, paralyzed by the sudden, terrifying tenderness in his touch.
She waited for him to answer her question. Why me?
Jarrod stared at her lips for a second longer, then blinked. The raw, complex emotion vanished from his eyes, instantly replaced by the cold, calculating stare of a military tactician. He dropped his hand and took a half-step back, giving her an inch of breathing room.
“Because you have a clean background,” Jarrod said. His voice was flat, carrying the official, detached tone of a briefing. “You have no complex political ties. No family money to leverage. You are the perfect, untraceable shield.”
Caroline felt a sudden, sharp pang in her chest. It felt like a physical blow. She had expected a lie, maybe a manipulation, but this cold, calculated assessment hurt more than she wanted to admit.
The sting of disappointment quickly mutated into hot anger. She let out a bitter laugh. “So that’s it. I’m just a tool. A convenient piece of cover for whatever shadow war you’re fighting.”
Jarrod’s jaw clenched. He leaned in again, placing his left hand flat against the metal locker right beside her head, caging her in once more.
𝖸𝗈𝗎𝗋 𝖽𝖺і𝘭𝘆 𝘥о𝘀e 𝘰𝗳 𝗇ov𝗲𝗅𝗌 𝗼n gal𝘯𝘰𝗏𝗲𝗹s.𝘤𝗼m
“Listen to me,” he said, dropping his voice to a deadly serious register. “Once you are part of the Romero family, you are under my umbrella for life.”
He leaned closer, forcing her to look into his stormy eyes. “That assassin from yesterday? He hasn’t been caught. He saw your face. He knows where you work. You are a loose end, Caroline, and in my world, loose ends get tied up violently.”
Caroline’s face paled. The memory of the cold scalpel pressing into her neck flashed in her mind, making her stomach churn with genuine fear.
“Only by taking my name,” Jarrod continued, his voice relentless, “can the military and the Secret Service legally provide you with maximum-level security. You need my clearance to stay alive.”
He stared deeply into her eyes, enunciating every single word. “I will not let my wife be harmed. That is my responsibility. And that is my promise.”
The sheer masculine energy and absolute certainty in his vow hit Caroline like a freight train.
All her life, she had been the one compromising. She had yielded to her mother’s screaming demands, she had cared for bleeding patients, she had hidden her true capabilities to blend in. No one—absolutely no one—had ever stood in front of her with such overwhelming strength and declared that her safety was their ultimate duty.
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